Clog (shoe) facts for kids

Clogs are often associated with whole foot style klompen from the Netherlands

Clogs are a type of footwear made in part or completely from wood. Clogs are used worldwide and although the form may vary by culture, within a culture the form often remained unchanged for centuries.

Traditional clogs remain in use as protective footwear in agriculture and in some factories and mines. Although clogs are sometimes negatively associated with cheap and folkloric footwear of farmers and the working class, some types of clogs are considered fashion wear today, such as Swedish träskor or Japanese geta.

Clogs are also used in several different styles of dance. When worn for dancing an important feature is the sound of the clog against the floor. This is one of the fundamental roots of tap.

Types

Wooden soled type English clogs

Overshoes type of clogs (pattens) with leather shoes (German), reconstruction of the Middle Ages

The Oxford English Dictionary defines a clog as a "thick piece of wood", and later as a "wooden soled overshoe" and a "shoe with a thick wooden sole". Welsh traditional clog maker Trefor Owen identified three main varieties of clogs: wooden upper, wooden soled and overshoes.

Welsh traditional clog maker Trefor Owen identified three main varieties of clogs: wooden upper, wooden soled and overshoes.

• Wooden upper clogs; are made by hollowing out a lump of solid wood to make a combined upper and lower. Two main variants can be seen:
  • whole foot clogs; where the wooden upper covers the whole of the foot to near the ankle, such as the familiar Dutch klomp. They are also known as "wooden shoes". Whole foot clogs can give sufficient protection to be used as safety footwear without additional reinforcements.
  • half open clogs; where the wooden upper extends over the toes or slightly further, such as the Italian "zoccolo" or Belgian sabots. The upper is similar in outline to a court shoe. Half open clogs may have additional covering or securing straps in some sort of fabric or leather.
• Wooden soled clogs; use wood for the sole only. Wooden soled clogs come with a variety of uppers:
  • complete uppers made from leather or similar material, such as English clogs. For more protection, they may have steel toecaps and/or steel reinforcing inserts in the undersides of the soles
  • open sandal type fitting. For example, Japanese geta
  • toe peg styles. For example, Indian paduka
• Overshoes; are wooden soles with straps designed to be worn over other footwear for protection, commonly known as pattens. Patten style clogs are not used anymore. However the derivative galoshes are common worldwide.

These divisions are not fixed: some overshoes look more like whole foot clogs, like Spanish albarca, whilst other wooden soled clogs raise and protect clothing in the way that overshoes do, such as Japanese geta.

Origins

The origin of wooden footwear in Europe is not precisely known. Wooden footwear often ended up as firewood and, because of its nature, wood will rot away in the long run. The oldest surviving wooden footwear in Europe is found in Amsterdam and Rotterdam, the Netherlands, and dates from 1230 and 1280. These finds look very similar to the wooden shoes that are still worn in The Netherlands.

Manufacture

Since wooden footwear was a hand-made product, the shape of the footwear, as well as its production process showed great local and regional diversity in style. At the beginning of the 20th century machine-made wooden footwear was introduced. After WW2, in particular, wooden shoes disappeared from sight. They were replaced by more fashionable all-leather and synthetic footwear.

Fashion clogs

In the 1970s and 1980s, Swedish clogs became popular fashion accessories for both men and women. They were usually worn without socks and were considered suitable attire for the avant-garde man. Men wearing clogs sock-less exuded a stunning and virile look that flourished among college campuses.

In the 1980s and 1990s clogs based on Swedish clogs returned in fashion for women. Platform clogs or sandals, often raised as high as 6 or even 8 inches right through between sole and insole, were worn in many western countries.

Museum

• Bata Shoe Museum, Canada
• International Wooden Shoe Museum Eelde, Netherlands
• Bai Mi Wooden Clog Village, Taiwan
• Clitheroe Castle Museum, Lancashire, UK.

Images for kids

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  Clogs in a 1400s painting

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  In this 1883 painting by Fritz von Uhde, painted in the Dutch town of Zandvoort, clogs are shown to be the townspeople's normal footwear.

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  Platform-sandal clog, with cork insole and rubber sole

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  World's biggest clog from one piece of wood, in Enter (Netherlands)

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  This cowherd appears to be wearing thick white wool socks and black leather turnshoes under her wooden overshoes, which are eased.

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  Here the rearmost portion of the vamp is elastic leather, and the shoe rotates using the cast of the toe.

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  Albarcas have three feet

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  They rotate around the front clog-feet, located under the ball of the human foot.

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  Geta rotate around the front tooth, which must be placed under the ball of the foot.

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  Tengu geta have only one tooth.

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  These wooden pattens are hinged at the ball of the foot.

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  Belgian sabot from Belgium

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  Træsko from Denmark

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  Sabot from France

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  Holzschuh from Germany

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  Clogs of the North Sea coasts in surf; they are waterproof.

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  Reconstruction of a Venetian chopine, after models dating from 1500 to 1600. On display at the Shoe Museum in Lausanne.

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  Zoccolo from Italy

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  Klumpės from Lithuania

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  Tamanco from Portugal

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  Asturian madreñas from Spain

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  Cantabrian albarcas from Spain

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  Träskor from Sweden

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  Zoggeli from Switzerland

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  Tai-Ping boots from China

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  Paduka from India

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  Bakiak [id] from Indonesia

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  Geta from Japan

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  Okobo from Japan

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  Namaksin from Korea

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  Terompah from Malaysia

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  Bakya from the Philippines

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  Nalin from Turkey

See also

In Spanish: Zueco para niños